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Sleeping in a Canopy

No bedroom fixture spells decadence or luxury as thoroughly as canopy beds do. In fact, in a lot of paintings and pictures, mature petite women in diaphanous silks together with boot-clad gentlemen are normally shown sprawled leisurely in four-poster canopy beds. Including Marie Antoinette is depicted as an extravagantly gowned young queen, forever relaxing in a canopy bed, with maids in tow.

Canopy beds are not a newbie to the fixture scene. As a matter of fact, they've been used for as long as individuals have been snoozing in beds. The wooden canopy bed commonly has 4 posts at every 4 corners. From mattress level, these posts jut out four feet high or more. Frilly fabrics are hung across the upper space between the posts. A durable swath of cloth is used to portray the illusion of a ceiling. The same cloth can also be hung directly on top of the bed.

Strange Bedfellows
While the canopy bed is similarly related to comfort as well as wealth, its roots are strongly established in a far less fantastic past. As a matter of fact, at the time of the Middle Ages, brass canopy beds weren't furniture an individual would relate to comfortable lifestyle. Individuals then lived in thatched roofs. They were houses to burrowing mice, worms, as well as other insects, all of which have the nasty attitude of falling on sleeping persons. To solve the predicament, posts were put up on each of the bed's four corners. Then, a cloth was hung upon these posts to drive wayward insects away. Clearly, sophistication and canopy were never bedfellows during the Middle Ages.

Canopy for Privacy
Royalties and wealthy landlords did not have to endure similar struggle with pests. They used iron canopy beds for a wholly different reason. In early European houses, the nobleman slept in the Great Hall along with his family and his servants. The one thing that's great about the Great Hall is the size. In reality, it is nothing but a big space of square-like proportions. Iron canopy beds provided noblemen some idea of privacy. Later on, it became a must-have for castles to give separate sleeping quarters. The canopy beds saw continued utilization, not more on privacy, but for the comfort they offer.

Canopy Beds Today
Over the years, canopy beds changed from sleeping berths for the common man to luxurious bedsteads for the well-off. Presently, it has become a widely embraced furnishing of themed and tastefully adorned bedrooms. Manufacturers give a seemingly unlimited number of choices, from metal canopy beds to the ones made of wood as well as cast iron.

Form and material aren't the only differences in canopy beds. Variation in the size of the bed is another vital modification. Canopy beds nowadays no longer come in a single size. They may range from canopy twin beds to those that could accommodate as many as four people! The canopy itself may be made of any make from muslin to chintz.

Certainly, the canopy bed has come a long way from its sad beginnings. It has transformed so dramatically, in fact, whether you're a commoner or a nobleman, an executive or the least of assistants, there is a canopy bed that is made simply right for you.